Global green growth crusade

The light bulb is powered by solar energy. The home solar system was built and installed by the Cambodians who were taught the technology by a Korean social enterprise. GGGI funded and managed the project. / Korea Times photo by Kim Da-ye

Eco-friendly, sustainable development policy begins taking off abroad

By Kim Da-ye

The green growth strategy was going to be Korea’s New Deal program, spurring economic development and creating jobs by fostering eco-friendly industries for lower carbon emission, environment protection and renewable energies.

However, before the strategy produced any significant outcomes, its architect, former President Lee Myung-bak, finished his term. The new Park Geun-hye administration has opted for a different growth strategy, called the “creative economy,” focused on science and information technology.

Nevertheless, green growth remains a relevant development model abroad, especially in developing countries that hope to emulate Korea’s rapid economic growth.

The body keeping the initiative alive is the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), which started as a nongovernmental organization in Korea. It became an international organization last October after approvals by legislative bodies of nine countries, including Korea.

Jointly governed by donor countries, recipients, non-state experts, the director-general and Korea as the host country, GGGI is pursuing business as usual. It is unaffected by the waning interest in green growth at home, and its projects have, in fact, been gaining momentum.

GGGI Director-General Richard Samans delivers a speech at a ceremony held in the Takeo Appropriate Technology Center, Takeo, Cambodia, March 20. / Korea Times photo by Kim Da-ye

GGGI Director-General Richard Samans is confident on the outlook of the institution because of its unique strategies.

When asked how GGGI differs from other organizations focused on the environment and sustainability, Samans said, “We are an economic institution that has been established to deeply integrate environmental consideration in developing the planning and implementation of a country’s core economic strategy. No other international organizations do such a thing.”

The fledgling institution, however, has a long way to go in order to validate its strategies. Jill O’Donnell, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, pointed out in a report that “there are at least two important criteria for the GGGI’s success in the long run. First, can it amass enough evidence to prove that green growth is possible? Second, can it show that successful cases can be emulated in diverse settings?”

A successful outcome that can be measured by the GDP of a given country as well as various environmental indices, including carbon emission and water quality, would have a significant impact.

“Our strategy is to support the emergence of strong examples in a dozen or so developing and emerging countries that adopt rigorous green growth plans, implement them and track them with the necessary technology,” Samans said.

“If we have 10 to 15 examples across different regions, it can transform the very concept of economic growth on one hand, and the politics of sustainable development that has been traditionally polarized north and south on the other.”

What makes GGGI tick

On March 19, banners with welcoming messages for the delegation from GGGI decorated the heart of Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital. On that day, Prime Minister Hun Sen, one of the longest-serving leaders in Asia, invited some 700 people to his palace-like office to officially launch the National Council on Green Growth (NCGG), the Cambodian equivalent of Korea’s Presidential Committee on Green Growth.

In a lengthy speech, the country’s most powerful man said that green growth was necessary for Cambodia and he would make sure the country embraced the relevant policies. Cambodia is focusing on water resources management, food security, forest conservation, renewable energy, education on green growth, quality of life for Cambodians and the creation of small- and medium-sized enterprises.

Behind the country’s dramatic decision is the two-year cooperation between GGGI and the Cambodian government. The latter invited GGGI to craft the country’s development plan, and they held a series of workshops in order to identify and analyze major areas of the environment Cambodia should protect during development.

What GGGI considered particularly important was the creation of the NCGG, the entity that will work with different ministries to ensure green growth policies are implemented across various sectors by the entire government, not just the environment ministry. This holistic approach was a key idea of the Korean low-emission growth model advocated by Lee Myung-bak.

Samans says that the approach seen in Cambodia sets GGGI apart from other international organizations.

Many international organizations come up with global goals and then try to persuade each government to commit to it. One example is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which set an international goal on carbon emission. In contrast, GGGI has a bottom-up approach of working with individual governments and tailoring economic plans to each country’s situation.

“Our methodology starts with their — not our — economic development strategy,” said Samans. “We listen to them and serve them, rather than preaching or stirring them toward a direction they do not want to go.”

Samans claims that GGGI’s activity is highly cost effective. GGGI has a budget of $50 million for 2013, and Samans said he expects a similar budget in 2014.

“The amount of money spent on these kinds of programs — a few million dollars per country — is tiny compared to its potential outcome. It is potentially extremely cost effective,” said Samans.

GGGI is still a small organization, with around 60 staff members — which the institution aims to double by next year — and three overseas offices, in Copenhagen, Abu Dhabi and London. The staff members are mostly academics, government officials and experts in green growth, who travel around the world, working directly with the recipient governments.

GGGI is, in many ways, a consultancy, and does not distribute goods and services. There is thus little risk of the aid money being directed to wrongful uses, which is a chronic problem in foreign aid for countries with high corruption.

Challenges

GGGI’s activities might be highly efficient, but they carry a significant political risk in Korea, where the interest in green growth evaporated instantly with the change of administration.

It was fortunate that GGGI became an international organization — the Presidential Committee on Green Growth under Lee Myung-bak has been demoted to an affiliated body of the Prime Minister’s Office, and various departments dedicated to green growth have been absorbed into others or abolished.

“We cannot eliminate political risks. The government is a human creation,” Samans said, acknowledging the problems GGGI faces.

In order to minimize political risks, Samans said that GGGI demands two conditions. First, the institution requires a high-level request from the government — in the case of Cambodia, from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Second, recipient governments must identify an institution GGGI can work with in the long run through changes of administrations. Cambodia’s NCGG will take on that role.

Will Korea’s lost interests in green growth influence GGGI’s activities in any way?

“There aren’t that many strong examples of leadership,” said the director-general. “Countries like Korea and a few others are beacons in this regard. Their progress and commitment will inevitably have an impact.”

Samans said that Korea’s major contribution to GGGI is its diplomatic efforts to turn it into an international organization.

The director-general said that GGGI has not, in fact, seen any change in support from Korea. “I have been informed by those who know better than I do that there will be quite a bit of support for GGGI,” he said.

Samans said it will take three to five years for GGGI to see the outcome of its consulting activities in a country, although the definition of the “outcome” has yet to be determined.

Samans points to Ethiopia as a model. The African country adopted a green growth development model back in 2010, and is already making investment plans based on GGGI’s recommendations. Norway recently committed $8 million to furthering Ethiopia’s low-emissions development plan.

Because most experts at GGGI are still Koreans, much of the consulting is based on Korean experiences. The institute informs the governments about what Korea has done wrong in the past in terms of its failure to pursue environmentally conscious policies, and warns them not to repeat the same mistakes. But would teaching about mistakes necessarily lead to achieving green growth?

“This is about knowledge sharing, and about trial and error,” said Samans.

“Just because you can’t replicate an existing model, it doesn’t mean it’s not possible. The world is changing. There are many more people on the planet and we simply have to do things differently than we did 10 years ago in rich countries. Technological innovations and the timeless nature of human continuity make me optimistic that developing countries will engineer a more sustainable growth model.”

New experiment

While GGGI’s main strategy is consulting governments to develop together a core economic development plan, the institution is experimenting with a new kind of approach in Cambodia.

In an impoverished province of Takeo, GGGI has directly worked with a local community in order to foster green enterprises. The success of the project may prove at a small scale that the sharing of knowledge and technology between developed countries and developing counterparts can work.

The recipient of GGGI’s support is a vocational school set up by a Korean missionary. Under GGGI’s guide, Cambodian staff members and students of the Institute of Sustainable Agriculture and Community Development (ISAC) have learned how to build solar cookers, solar home systems and “Scheffler Reflectors.”

The solar cooker is an upturned-bowl-like device made of aluminum sheets. It converts the sun rays into heat energy to cook enough rice to feed four people in 20 minutes.

The solar home system is a set of a solar panel, a battery and wiring. A 100-watt system can run a light bulb for four hours, a color TV for two hours and a small fan for three hours at the same time when the battery is fully charged.

The Scheffler reflector is a giant version of the solar cooker that cooks rice for 15 people within 30 minutes and boils 20 liters of water in 15 minutes only with the power of sunlight.

These are products of “appropriate technology” that is basic yet precisely addresses local needs. The technologies do not carry any patents.

The core idea of the Takeo project is to train the local workforce on eco-friendly technology so that they set up their own green enterprises and achieve economic independence. Before GGGI’s approach, some students of the ISAC did not even know how to use rulers and cut metals, let alone work with renewable energy.

Distributing solar cookers and solar home systems free of charge to Takeo residents may be a quick solution to the lack of electricity and firewood, but such a method is not sustainable. This is closely related to GGGI’s goal of building the capacity of the recipients.

GGGI has been collaborating with ASEM SMEs Eco-Innovation Center (ASEIC), an affiliate of the state-run Small and Medium Business Corp. that promotes green growth among small- and medium-sized enterprises. ASEIC funded the solar cooker and home system projects while the 100-million-won funding for Scheffler reflectors came from GGGI’s budget.

The biggest task the ISAC faces is how those products will be sold and marketed. The ISAC has so far built 100 solar cookers, 60 photovoltaic systems and three Scheffler reflectors. The revenue from the products will be used as seed money for a new enterprise. GGGI plans to continue sharing its expertise with the ISAC to help it found a company and distribute the products.